Road Maintenance

Peter Swallow Excerpts

Monday 7th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Peter Swallow (Bracknell) (Lab)]

Under the previous Government, it too often felt like we were in the passenger seat with no one at the wheel, driving down the road with no sense of direction and hitting bump after bump along the way. That is not just a rather strained metaphor; it is a reality for too many of my constituents. I am pleased to say, however, that following Labour’s success in winning control of Bracknell Forest council in 2023, the new Labour administration immediately set to work to address what it felt—and what I know—to be a huge priority for local residents, setting out a plan to invest £5 million over four years. That includes an extra £1 million over the baseline in this year’s budget. On top of that local investment, I am proud that the new Labour Government have provided a 35% uplift in Bracknell’s potholes budget—that is £3.2 million more.

[Olivia Bailey (Reading West and Mid Berkshire) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend and neighbour for giving way, and congratulate him on the excellent speech he is making. Does he agree that potholes are a costly, dangerous menace on our roads, and does he welcome the decisive action this Government are taking to fill those potholes, which includes nearly £12 million for my constituency?

[Peter Swallow]

Absolutely—I am very happy to do so. The reason why that investment is so badly needed, in Reading West and Mid Berkshire as well as in Bracknell, is the huge backlog of repairs we have inherited from the previous Government. As well as resurfacing major and residential roads that have not received the support they need for too long, this investment will allow for other upgrades, including a new toucan crossing between Halifax Road and Ranelagh Drive in Bracknell.

Bracknell Forest council is also using that investment to address the pressing need for more parking. That is a massive issue in Bracknell, which has a number of old estates—previously social housing—where there is simply not enough parking for residents. However, because we have been putting residents’ priorities first, we have delivered more parking on estates through the grass verge conversion scheme. It is slow progress, and there is much more to be done, not least because it requires agreement between the local authority and the social housing providers. Although the Minister has very kindly spoken to me about this issue before, I ask her what more support she can set out.

It is clear that these investments are not “job done”; there is a huge amount more to do to address the issues of potholes and parking. That is why I welcome the scrutiny enabled by the Government through annual progress reports, so that residents can see the actions that we and the local council are taking on their behalf. From October, there will be a duty to listen to residents’ priorities for what work needs to be done and where it needs to happen. I am proud to say that I believe Bracknell Forest council already does so, but extra focus is always welcome.

I also want to touch on the issue of roadworks caused by utility companies. During the general election, there were a large number of roadworks in Crowthorne in my constituency, so much so that the joke on the doorstep was, “How do you leave Crowthorne? You don’t.” Crowthorne is a lovely place—I am very proud to live there—but one does occasionally have to leave. Just this weekend, I have been dealing with utility companies’ roadworks down Yorktown Road in Sandhurst. That road, which is the main road through Sandhurst, has been repeatedly dug up by utility companies. One constituent commented on Facebook, “I have worked out that since the start of the year, Yorktown Road has only been free from extremely disruptive roadworks for about 30 days”—that is 30 of the 100 or so days we have had this year. Can the Minister tell us what more we can do to make sure that those disruptive roadworks caused by utility companies do not repeatedly hit the same stretch of road, which sadly all too often leads to what was a resurfaced road only last year being left in a terrible state of repair?

In the short time I have left, I will touch on another important element of our road network: buses. I am pleased that under this Labour Government, we have seen a £1 million investment into Bracknell Forest buses. That is more than in the previous three years combined. That has seen massive improvements to our local services, including the 194 bus, which now serves Buckler’s Park in Crowthorne. That has been able to leave, I am pleased to say. The X94 is now stopping at Martins Heron station, with more journeys between Heatherwood and Frimley Park hospitals, connecting our train stations and our hospitals up with our bus network. The council has also announced new companion passes for companions of disabled passengers to travel for free. More is coming with the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill, so that we can see greater local control over our bus network.

With this Government, we are back in the driver’s seat, back behind the wheel and, I am proud to say, driving on resurfaced roads. There is more to do, and there are more potholes to be filled, but that is this Government’s plan for change, and it is delivering.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jerome Mayhew]

It has been an interesting debate, and one might be forgiven for thinking that there are local elections coming up. I do not know what caused me to think that, but there was there was something in the air; let us leave it at that. I am not going to go through everyone’s contribution, insightful and interesting as each of them was in its own way. I will just pick out a few highlights of the debate.

I will start with my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore). Rather in the theme that I developed earlier, he referred to Bradford council’s terrible performance on potholes and said that it was leading to a loss of trust in Labour. In particular, he referenced the residents of Ilkley, who went to the trouble of having a referendum on what they should do about the state of the roads. He talked about the council’s proposal to impose speed humps and a 20 mph limit, despite 98.3% of residents voting against it. They were ignored by Labour.

Then we heard from the hon. Member for Burnley (Oliver Ryan), who is in his place. He also raised the condition of his local roads, but he went on to make an interesting point when he complained of what he described as the “crumbs of levelling up”. I took advantage of the length of the debate to look up what the crumbs of levelling up were, and, in fact, £19.9 million was directed to Burnley through three town centre schemes. That was an achievement of the excellent former colleague of mine, Antony Higginbotham, who was an understated but amazingly effective Member of Parliament. I will follow the career of the current Member for Burnley closely to see whether he delivers even a fraction of that for the people of Burnley.

My hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) showed off about the length of his roads, which certainly put mine to shame. He was another advocate for the JCB Pothole Pro, saying that 1,889 repairs had been undertaken in six months. But what he really exposed was the repeated failure of the SNP, which has cut funding north of the border, and the lack of interest shown in this debate from SNP Members in this place, as we can see from their empty Benches.

[Peter Swallow]

The shadow Minister is making a gallant effort to rattle through the fantastic contributions that we have heard tonight. Will he take this opportunity to congratulate Bracknell Forest council and its Labour administration for the £5 million investment over four years in pothole repairs?

[Jerome Mayhew]

I am happy to commend any council, of whatever colour, that gets on top of its potholes. I am about improving the quality of life for the residents of this United Kingdom. I make no bones about it: if Bracknell Forest council is improving the potholes in its neck of the woods, that is great, and the same is true of Conservative-led councils.

In his exposure of the SNP’s failure, my hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk was joined by the hon. Members for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson) and for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur). They agreed that the SNP is failing the people of Scotland. I will take this opportunity, as I was asked by the hon. Member for Edinburgh South West, to highlight the need for wheelchair access on pavements. That is a very important consideration.

The hon. Member for Bournemouth East (Tom Hayes) made a speech that reinforced the reputation he has already earned in this House. We heard contributions from the hon. Members for Stafford (Leigh Ingham), for Hexham (Joe Morris) and for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley), and then we heard from the hon. Member for Bathgate and Linlithgow (Kirsteen Sullivan), who, as I should have mentioned earlier, also blamed the SNP for failing motorists. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell), who made an expert intervention, levering in a reference to Romford during a speech that was entirely about Scottish issues. I learned an important lesson: he gained the maximum impact from the minimum amount of time in the Chamber—if only the rest of us had followed his example.

There were contributions from the hon. Members for Wolverhampton North East (Mrs Brackenridge) and for Stevenage (Kevin Bonavia), as well as the hon. Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher), who referred to the power of mayors. That gives me an opportunity to make a shameless plug for the Conservative candidate for mayor of Doncaster, Nick Fletcher, who is a former colleague and very good friend of mine. He will be the best leader for Doncaster.

There were further contributions from the hon. Member for Cramlington and Killingworth (Emma Foody) and the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (David Williams) —we all miss Jonathan Gullis in this place—and, finally, the hon. Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Alison Hume).

I opened this debate for the Opposition by talking about the need for predictable long-term funding, which is a key issue. I wish to draw a quote to the House’s attention:

“British people are bored of seeing their politicians aimlessly pointing at potholes with no real plan to fix them”.

That quote is not from me, but from the Prime Minister. He was right, and he identified the problem, but he has gone on to make it worse. [Interruption.] Well, I would love to be corrected. I will give this Minister the opportunity to confirm yesterday’s calculations from the Local Government Association, which said that the Government’s actions, through their national insurance contribution tax grab from local authorities, will reduce their ability to fund roads and other important matters by £1.1 billion. Does she agree with the Local Government Association, which is of course an independent organisation? Secondly, will she confirm that the Government will increase vehicle excise duty to the tune of £1.7 billion over the next five years, and whether that dwarfs the funding that Labour has so far announced for road improvements?

It is not too late. The Government could admit that they were wrong to shorten the timeframe for investment in road infrastructure. They could today commit to a 10-year funding plan. They could take this opportunity to reassure local authorities about how their funding will be received, allowing them to increase the efficiency of their pothole repair programmes. They could take this opportunity to deliver the long-term funding that our road networks need. I look forward to the imminent announcement from the Minister.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lilian Greenwood]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

As the Secretary of State said earlier, this Government inherited crumbling roads with local highway authorities struggling to stay on top of an ever-increasing backlog of maintenance. Of course, there are many reasons for that, including the weather and the increasing volume and weight of traffic using our roads, but it is abundantly clear that the funding provided by the previous Government was simply not enough to allow local authorities to deal with the problem.

No one knows this better than Karen Shore, our Labour candidate in Runcorn and Helsby, who served for many years as the cabinet member for highways on her local council. As she and we remember, the Tories made promises for 14 years but, in reality, any funding uplifts were short-lived and never fully materialised. It is perhaps not surprising that the Conservative Benches have been so empty during this debate.

This Government are determined to ensure that things will be different, and we will do better.

[Peter Swallow]

Does the Minister know whether any Reform MPs have constituents with pothole issues? Of course, we would not know because they are not here.

[Lilian Greenwood]

My hon. Friend makes an important point, and people can see for themselves which party is on the side of motorists and road users.

We have provided an extra £500 million in the current financial year, on top of the previous Government’s funding baseline and the Network North money for 2024-25. It is a huge increase. For most authorities, it means around 36% or 37% more than last year, and of course it is just the start.

As many hon. Members have observed today, a one-off uplift will not fix all the problems—it was never going to. However, through the spending review, we are determined to secure a long-term funding settlement to allow local highway authorities to plan ahead with confidence. Strangely, the only time the previous Government promised long-term funding was nine months before the general election, knowing full well that they had not put any cash aside to pay for it.

We are determined to ensure that the extra funding we are providing genuinely leads to extra spending by local authorities, rather than simply allowing them to put less of their own funding into highway maintenance. That is exactly why we are introducing the extra reporting requirements that the Secretary of State set out.

The information that councils publish in June will shine a spotlight on this issue in a way that has not happened before. It will allow local people to see for themselves what repairs and resurfacing their council is planning, and how this compares with other local authorities. It will help the Department and the public to understand matters such as which authorities are putting their own funding into the pot, and which are doing the most to prepare their networks for the wetter winters that we are already seeing.